Journal of Religion reviews Kirby's book on otherkin

[frameacloud]

Content warnings: None.

September: In the academic Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital Culture, David Robertson reviewed Danielle Kirby's writings about the otherkin community in Fantasy and Belief: Alternative Religions, Popular Narratives and Digital Cultures, a book published this year.

Robertson's review also functions as a concise introduction to otherkin and some of the overlapping groups described by Kirby. See that Robertson opens the review by giving a definition of otherkin:

The Otherkin are an online community of individuals who identify as ontologically non-human; while occupying a human body, their 'true selves' (one might read 'souls') are other. The majority of Otherkin identify as animals, beings recognisable from folklore and mythology (dragons, elves, vampires) or characters and races from popular fiction (literature, television, computer games and particularly Japanese manga and anime). [...] Of course, there is no strict delineation to be drawn between fictional and religious or mythological narratives; while dragons, fairies and angels all derive from the mythologies of specific historical cultures, their contemporary constructions derive as much, if not more, from recent portrayals in popular fiction.

I think this is a fairly satisfactory definition of otherkin. Later in the review, Robertson tells of some groups that Kirby considers sub-groups of otherkin (otaku-kin and Elenari elves) and some overlapping groups (multiples and soulbonds). Notably, I see no mention of animal people such as therianthropes or furries.

Regarding Kirby's book itself, Robertson said,

"Despite her admonition that [Kirby's] aim was not to provide 'an exhaustive exploration of the Otherkin community' but rather to explore 'the dual influences of speculative (primarily fantasy) fiction and communication technology in the creation of alternative metaphysical systems', the book is nevertheless just that, with chapters devoted to how the Otherkin relate to these themes. Too much of the book is little more than a catalogue of related but not particularly relevant concepts and communities ..."

Robertson voiced disappointment about some insufficiently relevant material in the book, particularly a chapter that gave histories of mythological creatures, which did not contribute much to understanding otherkin or questioning religiosity.

I noticed that Robertson made a few errors in the review. Robertson misspells "Elenari Elves" as "Elanari Elves." Robertson also perpetuates the common misconception of conflating schizophrenia with Disassociative Identity Disorder.



Source

David Robertson, "Review." Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital Culture 2: 2 (Sept 2013).
http://jrmdc.com/reviews/fantasy-belief/
(That's the full article, in HTML.)
http://jrmdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Review_FantasyandBelief_Robertson_Sept2013.pdf
(That's a direct link to the full article, in PDF.)

Comments

[arethinn]

Hmm. I find myself itching at the persistent characterization of the phenomenon of otherkin as an "online community". True, the internet enabled more of us to find each other, and perhaps it's true that the majority of us these days might not have "awakened" without it - but to say it is "online" seems to mean inherently so, or solely so, and that they do not understand this existed before the internet and that there are also many individuals who do not participate in the online community, yet nevertheless are otherkin or otherwise present themselves as other-than-human (even if they may disdain the "otherkin community" as such).